A Matter of Life & Debt season 2 begins!

23 Nov 18

This week the hugely successful television series, ‘A Matter of Life & Debt’ returned for its second season.

The series tells the story of credit unions and some other community lenders, through the eyes of the staff and those that have benefitted from using them, in big and in small ways. Featuring in this week’s round of episodes were Bristol Credit Union, Clockwise Credit Union, Derbyshire Community Bank, East Sussex Credit Union, Hull & East Yorkshire Credit Union.

Speaking about Derbyshire Community Bank’s involvement in season two, CEO Sara Osbourne believes that “It is a great opportunity to raise awareness of the bank and the support we give local communities to help them save or borrow responsibly”.

Season one was the most popular show on TV for its time slot and attracted 25% of TV audiences (1.25 million people). Throughout its duration of 15 episodes, over 48,000 people visited the Find Your Credit Union website and over 30,000 found a credit union available to them.

Reflecting on the shows impact, Sara continued to say: “It is a sad fact that most people still don’t know credit unions exist as an affordable alternative to high interest, doorstep, payday or unregulated lenders, even though credit unions have been around for over 50 years.”

Hull & East Yorkshire featured in episode 2 this week, speaking about their delight to be involved, Chief Executive, John Smith said: “We were thrilled to be part of season 2. Every year we continue to serve our community and help give members a happy debt free life. Seeing our work broadcast to millions and the life changing work we do in the community is a great message of the credit union ethos ‘people helping people’. This year is especially special as the credit union reaches our 20 year anniversary and we love that this is promoted on BBC One”.

John commented on how business has been since HEYCU featured in episode 2, he said: “The reaction to the television series has been overwhelmingly positive in our community. We have been blown away to see so many people make enquiries of membership and our phones have received a huge spike in activity as a direct result of the series”.

Next week’s episodes will air on BBC One from Monday - Friday at 11:00 am. You can catch up with the episodes on BBC IPlayer by clicking here.